Fourth Trimester Book Review by a Mental Health Therapist
This a book review of: The Fourth Trimester: A Postpartum Guide to Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions, and Restoring Your Vitality by Kimberly Ann Johnson reviewed by Nicole Nina, a mental health therapist who specializes in maternal mental health and anxiety disorders.
I had long heard of this book since its release in 2017 but was busy focusing on the “main event” of labor and delivery to read it before I was due with my third biological child. I wish thought that I had read this much book much earlier because taking care of your body and mind after birth is every bit as important as before.
While I thought I knew what this book was going to say as a mental health therapist specializing in postnatal and prenatal mental health services, I was pleasently surprised by the many topics that I was not familiarized with.
How does this book help Anxiety?
Reading about birth helps reduce our worry or anxiety about giving birth. While we can get to a point of “information overload” I would consider this book or another tangential book to be almost compulsory to know how to cope after delivery.
Getting informed about how your postpartum period may go can help manage or prevent postpartum depression and / or anxiety. While good stats around these conditions are not known given that our care for postnatal women in the U.S. is so poor, I and many other mental health professionals would venture to say that it is much higher than we think.
Given the array of physical, emotional and hormonal changes that happen in a mother post-delivery, it is a highly sensitive period that should be prepared for and supported as much as possible.
Honoring the Fourth Trimester
Most people probably have not heard of the phrase “fourth trimester” as Johnson was certainly a trailblazer in this arnea. The fourth trimester refers to the first three months after a mother gives birth and encourages readers to take it as seriously as the three trimesters of pregnancy that women go through to have a baby.
When a mother has a baby, her need for rest and recovery is far from over. Healing from the physical and emotional labor of pregnancy and birth is far from over when the baby enters the world.
Johnson breaks up the book in three parts: prepping, savoring and going beyond the fourth trimester.
Prepping for your fourth trimester:
Get a plan for a support system that you need after birth. The book dives into an array of professionals you may want to consider. {Doula, pelvic floor specialist, lactation consultant, mental health therapist}
Think of the preparations you need to make to have yourself and your baby cared for. {Groceries, laundry, clean sheets, mental care}
Getting the time off you need. Making travel preparations if needed.
Savoring your fourth trimester:
Truly try not to do anything but savor your baby.
Have a support system around that will engage as much or as little as you need. {The book dives into the deep importance of having older female guides}
Give yourself permission to rest and recover fully {a very counter culture narrative to not get up and moving as soon as we feel “better”}
Recovering from your fourth trimester:
The author shares her own experience of needing years to recover from birth, and the support she wishes she had, and what many women come to her wishing they had.
The book gives a broad call to action that we support mothers during this transition more broadly.
The book dives into a variety of homeopathic considerations for healing during this period.
The mother wound
This book introduced me to the idea of “the mother wound” which she describes as being irritated further after having a baby of your own. Never before could I have put into words as eloquently as Johnson did just how real this is.
When a mother has a baby, it reminds her so deeply of the relationship she has with her mother, or the lack there of.
We are introduced to the sacrifice our own mothers made to bring us into the world and keep us alive. Johnson describes that many women who drift apart from their mothers during adolescence or in their early adult life will tray back to their mothers after this period. For those without this option, the pain of the mother wound grows.
It is essential that mothers spend time healing themselves and coping with the relationship they have with their own mothers.
She also talks about how essential it is to have older female guides. These can be aunts, grandmothers, cousins or close friends that can help guide a mother into this new chapter in her life. And even if the mother is on her fifth baby - she too will need mothering during her fourth trimester.
My overall opinion: read it! Or read something to prepare for after birth.
It is not surprising that mothers get forgotten after a baby is born. And while I hope to a be a part of changing that narrative, for now one of the best messages I can give to expectant moms is to prepare for yourself!
It is my deepest belief that mothers know how best to prepare for their own childbirth and their own after care. They carry with them an intuition that I try to help them see, both as a fellow mother and as a mental health therapist.
If you feel that this text can serve you, I encourage you to pick up a copy! If you don’t, I recommend you find something else to help you prepare for your fourth trimester, as I believe that it is truly essential.
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below and let me know if you chose to give it a read!
The information and resources contained on this website are for informational purposes only and are not intended to assess, diagnose, or treat any medical and/or mental health disease or condition. The use of this website does not imply nor establish any type of therapist-client relationship. Furthermore, the information obtained from this site should not be considered a substitute for a thorough medical and/or mental health evaluation by an appropriately credentialed and licensed professional.
